Another effect of the Affordable Care Act: More entrepreneurs

Many Houstonians have told me over the years that if it weren't for the difficulty of getting - and being able to afford - health insurance, they'd go into business for themselves.

But the cost of buying individual or family coverage, if they could even find it because of pre-existing conditions, kept them in their corporate work-a-day world.

However, that is likely to change.

Whatever you may think of the new Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, it will likely lead to more self-employment, researchers affiliated with the Urban Institute and Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute have determined.

The researchers calculated that with health insurance becoming more available and more affordable because of government subsidies, 1.5 million more Americans - including 124,000 in Texas - will become self-employed entrepreneurs next year. Nationally, that represents an increase of more than 11 percent.

It's an angle of the Affordable Care Act that we don't hear much about, said Partha Krishnamurthy, professor of marketing at the University of Houston and director of the Institute for Health Care Marketing.

When entrepreneurs start out in business, they are often strapped for cash, he said. While they're by nature risk takers, typically betting their life savings to put their ideas to work, they expose themselves to financial disaster if they run up big medical bills.

The Affordable Care Act can reduce that risk, especially with its limits on out-of-pocket costs, Krishnamurthy said.

'Job lock'

Rhett Buttle, vice president of external affairs at Small Business Majority, a nonprofit advocacy group that focuses on the problems facing small businesses, pointed to the problem of "job lock" - employees remaining in a job largely for health insurance benefits - at a conference I attended last week on the business of health care sponsored by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Houstonian Rick Gillis is like many entrepreneurs. His company, the Really Useful Job Search Co., has no employees. He does public speaking, writes blogs and books and consults with clients on job search techniques.

But he could never do it without being able to be on his wife's health insurance plan.

"I know I'd be looking at $700 to $900 a month and I don't even know if I could get it," said Gillis, who, like many of us, has a pre-existing condition that could easily have disqualified him from coverage.

Corporate security

The availability and affordability of health insurance have been concerns at the Houston Technology Center.

There is a sense of security in corporate America that includes access to affordable benefits, said Maryanne Maldonado, vice president of the center, which helps emerging technology companies expand. The center coaches its clients on the risks and rewards of being entrepreneurs. The risks include unstable income and the availability of health insurance.

One way for entrepreneurs to obtain coverage is through a third-party benefits provider, she said.

But will the Affordable Care Act make a difference? Maldonado isn't sure because it's so new. It could go either way, she added.

'But I'm skeptical'

The National Federation of Independent Business isn't nearly so bullish.

"If the health care plan were to spur entrepreneurship, that would be great," said Laura Hoke, the organization's communication director for Texas. "But I'm skeptical."

Hoke said she has heard nothing but complaints from the members about rising costs and canceled coverage. The group sued to prevent the Affordable Care Act from going into effect. That resulted in the Supreme Court case that largely upheld the legislation.

L.M. Sixel writes about the economy and the workplace for the Houston Chronicle. She writes a weekly column called "Working" that appears each Thursday.

She started her newspaper career at the Beaumont Enterprise. Before that, she earned a Bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master's degree in economic history from the London School of Economics.